According to recent studies, the average owner of a portable electronic device such as a cellular phone spends more than three hours per day using the device. Moreover, these uses are no longer simply voice calls; users now plan, purchase, play, and schedule on their devices as well. Rather than slowly multitasking via several devices, or being tethered to a traditional PC platform for long periods of time, users can now quickly handle many smaller tasks on a single, high powered, portable device.
However, for reasons of power conservation and security, most portable electronic devices are configured to automatically lock or go idle after a certain period of disuse. Most portable electronic devices can also be manually put into such a state. Thus the user must unlock the device each time they wish to begin a new task or to finish a partly completed task, and each access interaction therefore imposes a time cost. The sheer number and frequency of discrete user interactions each day mean that even small access delays can accrue to cause a significant loss of productivity over the course of the user's day.
While the present disclosure is directed to a system that can eliminate some of the shortcomings noted in this Background section, it should be appreciated that any such benefit is not a limitation on the scope of the disclosed principles, nor of the attached claims, except to the extent expressly noted in the claims. Additionally, the discussion of technology in this Background section is reflective of the inventors' own observations, considerations, and thoughts, and is in no way intended to accurately catalog or comprehensively summarize the prior art. As such, the inventors expressly disclaim this section as admitted or assumed prior art with respect to the discussed details. Moreover, the identification herein of a desirable course of action reflects the inventors' own observations and ideas, and should not be assumed to indicate an art-recognized desirability.